Get ready, because Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac is coming (no pun intended). Hot and sticky on the heels of Melancholia, the film is shaping up to be the director’s most ambitious project to date, especially with today’s announcement of a new Internet spin-off series that is in the works.
This is certainly titillating news. As if the film itself were not enough, being in excess of five hours in its longest cut (not to mention its theatrical cut coming in at a fairly-endless four hours), we’re now getting a spin-off series as well. As a longtime von Trier fan though, you’re definitely not going to hear any complaints from me.
So far, the plot of Nymphomaniac seems to be a sort of anthology of contiguous and interweaving stories, all concerning Charlotte Gainsbourg’s character, the titular nymphomaniac Joe. The cast of the movie is huge and star-studded, with some repeat actors from von Trier’s earlier films (the Dafoe is back as always!) and some new additions too (Christian Slater!). Watching all these folks tell von Trier’s story of sexuality is going to be very interesting, to say the least.
That’s not all, though. The Danish National Association of Film Critics has chimed in with an amazing poster for the upcoming Bodil awards ceremony that lampoons the recent Nymphomaniac poster (the original is a collage of all of the film’s characters framed in varying states of sexual bliss). Pretty ballsy stuff for a board of Danish film critics to play on, if you ask me.
Here’s the whole thing, if your body is ready:
Nymphomaniac Part One will be unleashed into American theaters on March 21st. Bring some Kleenex and hope that nobody shines a black light.